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Cartostrip

Richard Alcock, founder of Cartostrip Ltd., has worked within the folding carton and corrugated industries for over 30 years. Throughout his career, he has witnessed many changes in technology and user requirements.

His initial company supplied rebuilt diecutters, folder gluers and display machinery to end-users. Upon the sale of this organization, he established KCE and began selling new equipment to the folding carton and corrugated markets. His firm represented several highly-respected product lines including Bahmuller, Gopfert, STOCK, Lasercomb, Tosi and Nikko. Although blanking machines were available on the market, they were expensive and often the cost could not be justified due to short runs of the jobs.

For many years pneumatic and electric jackhammers were used for stripping, even though the outcomes often resulted in a high occurrence of damaged and unusable materials. The available star-wheel rotary units not only caused damage to the substrate but posed potential health risks to the operators due to the extreme vibration employed by those units. Small rotary pad units were also available but often damaged the material and required constant sharpening. Damaged blanks also caused poor gluer throughput. At that time, a cost-effective yet safe and efficient stripping tool was not yet available on the market.

Richard Alcock envisioned a new product that would merge a rotating chain with ultra-hard teeth safely encased within a guard protecting both the operator and the box blanks that would also serve as a guide to efficient stripping. Those ideas evolved into today’s Cartostrip product that features a powerful motor that can process folding box board, solid board up to 2000 microns and corrugated material. The design of the Cartostrip unit also incorporated a two-handed operation providing dual valves for added operator safety.

Cartostrip, Ltd. was launched in 2008 and its initial production model was introduced to the market in early 2010. The Cartostrip product is manufactured exclusively in the firm’s United Kingdom plant, adhering to the highest standards of safety, durability and reliability. The benefits of the Cartostrip product have been recognized within the folding carton and corrugated industries on a global basis and have been heralded as a significant advancement to the goals of higher productivity, reduced waste and greater operator safety. In 2014, the Cartostrip Compact was launched and stands as the pinnacle of performers against which all other hand-held stripping devices are measured.

Clients have cited the many advantages of the Cartostrip product and have shared comments such as, “Our firm has saved 85% of its labor cost within the time-consuming stripping process” and “The Cartostrip has saved over $91,000 in contract labor costs within this year alone”.

The advantages and affordability of the Cartostrip device makes it a ‘must-have’ within today’s cost-conscience production environments.